Have I got a great case study for you … That is not quite how I deliver my strategy and marketing training courses to clients - I don't want to come across as a slippery life insurance salesman. But in a training environment, delegates love to listen to stories and case studies about success and failure. It helps them understand what has worked for a certain company in a given situation and what pitfalls to avoid.
Inevitably, I get asked one particular question that stumps me: "Do you have any local or regional case studies that illustrate the management concept you are talking about?" You see, like others who deliver their training programmes in a "pocket-MBA" format, I resort to sourcing case studies prepared by the likes of Harvard Business School, the Kellogg School of Management, INSEAD and others. There is a healthy body of documentation available from these international business schools on a myriad subjects including strategy, human resources, marketing, finance, leadership and other areas of interest to students and managers.
And since the authors and contributors to these business schools are largely based outside this region, the case studies are written about organisations based in the US, Europe and some in Asia. Very rarely do you come across one set in the GCC or even the MENA region. There are a few, but not of the quality to put into a training programme. Yet all of us who live in the Gulf know there are some excellent corporate and organisational examples. Take the success of Air Arabia in outsmarting its peers; or the award-winning RAKBank that every year tops the banking league for customer service; or the hard-hitting Al Jazeera international news network that has changed the perception of Arab broadcasting in the global media landscape.
These and other trail-blazers are fine examples of world-class organisations. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, their best practice has not been documented in a way that managers and students can discuss, study and learn from. So I end up teaching by anecdote. If these stories were documented within a management framework and subsequent case study it would prove an important source of knowledge for managers and students to draw on.
It could even assist with establishing better corporate practice, governance and entrepreneurship - after all success breeds success. David Jones, a senior adviser at Hewitt Associates, one of the world's largest HR outsourcing companies, agrees. "Local research is critical because to have full practical benefit in the workplace," Mr Jones says, "we need data that is both rigorous and relevant to working practices in the region.
"Importing best-practice approaches from outside the region and assuming that it is relevant to the situation of local organisations is not always useful." He also agrees there are plenty of good regional examples, such as the Islamic Development Bank, based in Jeddah. They have employed oral history techniques to capture the experience of innovators at the bank that were involved in the development of the sukuk and the imaginative use of financial waqf funds more than 30 years ago. But these have been primarily for internal staff consumption.
So why is there this lack of local management case studies to draw down on? First, a number of organisations in the region are prone to excessive secrecy and playing a game of smoke and mirrors. They are not willing to open up their management practices to outsiders. In the case of a poorly managed organisation, that is not a bad thing, since what we'd see would probably want to make us cry. But I am surprised when I see the same secretive attitude demonstrated by those organisations that are excelling in their fields. The best-known brands and most profitable companies around the world have reams and reams of management case studies written about them. They learn from these, improve what they are doing and then go on to the next level of their development.
The second reason for the lack of regional management case studies is that local business schools have not taken up the task of documenting best practice. To date they have focused their attention on bringing fat-fee paying students through the doors on to well-marketed MBA programmes. They have provided the students with some exemplary teaching through world-class faculty members but have failed when it comes to developing practitioners and capturing the application of the teaching locally.
There are some exceptions but unfortunately most business schools are not providing their students with the opportunity to reach out and do some genuine fieldwork. This also needs to change. "One hundred years ago, Japan was busy importing external best practices and nobody could have imagined that a distinctly Japanese management model would develop and dominate management thinking in some specific fields," Mr Jones says.
"There is no reason why a distinctly Arab approach to management shouldn't be equally valuable if we take the steps to appreciate and understand its strengths and have the confidence to implement our own approaches at work." The irony is that the greatest leaps in Arab scholarship and knowledge occurred when Arab scholars intellectually engaged the works of the Greeks and other ancient civilisations. Having mastered these, they then built on them to create new frameworks for thinking and development which other parts of the world adopted.
History has a way of repeating itself and sometimes in a positive way. Let's hope it doesn't take too much longer as I've got a training programme to deliver next month and will no doubt be asked the very same question. Rehan Khan is a business consultant and writer based in Dubai business@thenational.ae
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SPECS
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Recipe: Spirulina Coconut Brothie
Ingredients
1 tbsp Spirulina powder
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (full fat preferable)
1 tbsp fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
½ cup fresh spinach leaves
½ cup vegan broth
2 crushed ice cubes (optional)
Method
Blend all the ingredients together on high in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbocharged
Transmission: eight-speed PDK automatic
Power: 445bhp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh474,600
On Sale: Now
A%20QUIET%20PLACE
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
More from Neighbourhood Watch
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Awar Qalb
Director: Jamal Salem
Starring: Abdulla Zaid, Joma Ali, Neven Madi and Khadija Sleiman
Two stars
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
DIVINE%20INTERVENTOIN
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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
If you go
The Flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Johannesburg from Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively. Economy return tickets cost from Dh2,650, including taxes.
The trip
Worldwide Motorhoming Holidays (worldwidemotorhomingholidays.co.uk) operates fly-drive motorhome holidays in eight destinations, including South Africa. Its 14-day Kruger and the Battlefields itinerary starts from Dh17,500, including campgrounds, excursions, unit hire and flights. Bobo Campers has a range of RVs for hire, including the 4-berth Discoverer 4 from Dh600 per day.
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Veil (Object Lessons)
Rafia Zakaria
Bloomsbury Academic
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.